History of Falls Church
, an independent city in Virginia, United States, takes its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century parish of the Church of England. Falls Church gained township status within Fairfax County in 1875. In 1948, it was incorporated as the City of Falls Church, an independent city with county-level governance status.
Prehistory and European colonization
Northern Virginia, before Europeans explored it, was firmly governed by the Iroquois Confederacy—a consortium of Native American nations and peoples including the Tauxenents, Patawomekes, and Matchotics. Local inhabitants considered the Little Falls of the Potomac River significant—it is the first "cataract", or barrier, to navigation on the river.The word "Potomac" is Native American for "gathering place", reflecting the river's service as both a highway and location for trading.
Captain John Smith of England was the first European to explore the Potomac as far as Little Falls. "As for deer, buffaloes, bears and turkeys, the woods do swarm with them and the soil is extremely fertile", he wrote.
The Colony of Virginia grew out of these explorations, and English settlers may have established themselves at the site of modern-day Falls Church as early as 1699. A cottage demolished between 1908 and 1914, two blocks from the city center, bore a stone engraved with the date "1699" set into one of its two large chimneys. The house is unmentioned in colonial-era land grants and land records and its origin remains unknown.
Indian trails meandered past the site of the 1699 cabin—an east-west one generally following the route of modern Broad Street, and one branching off from it to the Little Falls of the Potomac—today's Little Falls Street. By the 1730s, these trails became important transportation routes.
In 1734, The Falls Church—as it came to be known—was founded at its present site next to the intersection of the important Indian trails. At that time, churches were outposts of government as well as worship. The church's establishment reflected the desire of Colony leaders and the Church of England—the colony's official church—to make inroads in the vast wilderness of Northern Virginia. Two acres were purchased from local landowner John Trammell; a carpenter named Richard Blackburn built a wooden church.
This stood until 1769, when the present brick church was designed and built by architect James Wren. George Washington, the future president, kept the bricklayer at his home in Mount Vernon. Unable to find enough paid laborers to build the church, Wren, a slaveowner, used enslaved people to do the work.
Originally called "the crossroads near Michael Reagan's", the site of the church first appears on a map dated 1747, and is labeled the "Upper Church". It was also called "the church up at the falls", and then eventually, The Falls Church.
The church was on the route of British colonial troops en route to the forks of the Ohio River on April 7, 1755. Part of Major General Edward Braddock's British army engaged in fighting the French during the French and Indian War. Modern-day Broad Street was locally called Braddock's Road for decades afterward.
War of Independence
Important and influential men attended The Falls Church and served as its vestrymen, including George Washington; George Mason, who would write the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution; John West; and Charles Broadwater.When colonial relations with Great Britain began souring, the Colony of Virginia helped lead the resistance. these vestrymen were deeply involved. Mason wrote the "Fairfax Resolves", a call for 24 specific actions. The men were members of Virginia's revolutionary council meeting in Williamsburg, the royal capital. The council instructed Virginia's delegates at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to introduce a resolution calling for independence. Virginia's delegate did so, and the Congress passed the motion on July 2. The Declaration of Independence was issued July 4. It is said a copy of the declaration arrived from Philadelphia and was read to citizens from the steps of The Falls Church sometime during the summer of 1776. Falls Church leaders recruited men to serve in the colonial militia.
Appointed to lead the Continental Army, Washington remained a Falls Church vestryman until resigning his post in 1784, having been unable to attend to his church duties. He later was elected first president of the United States.
Federal Capital Territory
Methodism came to the Falls Church area in 1776—a different kind of revolution—as church meetings began to be held on "Church Hill", a home at present-day Seven Corners. In 1779, the wooden Adams's Chapel or Fairfax Chapel was built in what is now Oakwood Cemetery in Falls Church's eastern end. This was the site of "Black Harry" Hosier's first sermon in 1781. The original church was replaced with another building and finally by a sturdy and substantial brick chapel in 1819. The structure was still in use until torn down by Union soldiers during the Civil War in 1862.In 1790, the District of Columbia was created. It was surveyed in 1791–1792, and boundary marker stones were placed in the wilderness at one-mile intervals. Two are in the City of Falls Church today: the West Cornerstone on Meridian Street, marking what is now the intersection of the boundaries of the City of Falls Church, Arlington County, and Fairfax County; and the Southwest 9 stone on Van Buren Street.
In about 1800, Fairfax County built a new court house. It was designed by James Wren, a Falls Church innkeeper who also designed The Falls Church. Both buildings survive and are in use today. Wren's inn was well known. President Thomas Jefferson wrote Secretary of State James Madison in 1801, warning him of the perilous nature of the public roads in Northern Virginia, and advised, "You had better start as soon as you can see to drive, breakfast at Colonel Wren's, and come here for dinner."
The War of 1812
War with Britain loomed again, and what some historians call the "Second War of Independence" broke out in 1812. By 1814 the tide had turned against the Americans. In August British forces, marching overland through Maryland, threatened the capital city.The federal government fled. Colonel George Minor of Minor's Hill—overlooking Falls Church—and his 700-man Virginia Militia 60th Regiment were summoned from Falls Church on August 23, 1814, to Washington, which they were assigned to defend. However, due to bureaucratic bungling among War Department officials, they were not sent to help defend the approaches to Washington at Bladensburg, Maryland, nor did many of them come armed.
As events at the Battle of Bladensburg worsened, government officials began evacuating the city. At that time the Washington Navy Yard was an important fleet center, and its gunpowder was hurriedly moved across the bridges into Virginia, and brought to Falls Church for safekeeping, protected by a six-man guard dispatched by Colonel Minor.
Government officials also fled the city, including President James Madison, who came to Minor's Hill looking for his wife, Dolley—a friend of the colonel's wife—before hurrying downhill into Falls Church. He, the nation's attorney general, and his entourage struggled through the chaotic and crowded roads toward Falls Church, eventually arriving at Wren's Tavern.
Mrs. Madison, separated in the chaos of that night from her husband, fled to the safety of Colonel Minor's home on Minor's Hill, and spent two nights there.
British troops torched Washington, burning it to the ground. The conflagration lit the nighttime skies at Falls Church, where a young refugee from Alexandria later recalled being awakened and taken outside to see Washington burn. "At first I thought the world was on fire. Such a flame I have never seen since."
Internal improvements
Local internal improvements were initiated in 1829 by the private Middle Turnpike Company, which built a turnpike to connect the end of King Street in Alexandria to Dranesville, from where it connected with the Leesburg Turnpike. From Alexandria through Falls Church it followed the colonial-era ridge road. Tolls began being collected in 1839.Another new road connected Falls Church with other points east in 1852, when the new Aqueduct Road connected a bridge by the same name across the Potomac River with Fairfax Court House. Its route from the river to Falls Church became modern-day Wilson Boulevard.
Roads helped connect Falls Church with larger trading centers, and the village began to prosper. A larger population called for more forms of religious expression, and a local Presbyterian congregation was launched in 1848. Columbia Baptist Church was formed in 1856 and built itself a two-story wooden New England–style church house on East Broad Street, adjacent to The Falls Church.
Rail travel arrived in 1860 when the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad opened. The railroad linked Alexandria with Virginia's mountain counties. It shortened the transit from Falls Church to Alexandria from a half-day on the Turnpike to only 35 minutes on the train.
A post office was established at Falls Church in 1849. New residents, many from northern states, were arriving and building fine homes. Solid and unpretentious, but well-built, many of these are still in existence today, and their architectural styles recall their owners' New England and Upper Atlantic origins and craftsmanship.
The Civil War
The American Civil War was a turning point in the history of Falls Church. Before the war it was a sleepy and rural Southern community. During Reconstruction and later, however, many of its institutions and families were splintered, and its landscape was altered for decades.Setting the stage
Before the war Falls Church was not entirely Southern in nature. Numerous northern-born residents had moved to the area, building fine homes and establishing profitable farms and businesses. They lived in harmony with Falls Church's native Virginians.This all changed with the fateful—and unsuccessful—raid by radical abolitionist John Brown on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Brown, who was captured by U.S. authorities and hanged, inspired a groundswell of support throughout the North for the abolition of slavery. Southerners were shocked. For the first time, the picture had been painted in starkly differing terms. Northerners appeared willing—even eager—to overturn the established order throughout the South, with clear and grave injury to those who lived there, it seemed to Southerners.
In Fairfax County, the issue of slavery became a subject of much discussion. Feelings and differences hardened. Events far to the south framed the debate almost in an almost electrifying manner. South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, followed in quick order by several other Deep South states. In Virginia, the viewpoint was much more moderate. Many called for calm and appealed for peace. The matter was put to a referendum on May 23, 1861, and Virginians went to polling stations to decide the future of the Commonwealth.
Feelings throughout the Falls Church region were inflamed by this point, and the polling did not take place peacefully. Armed men belonging to Virginia's Rappahannock Cavalry and Fairfax Cavalry intimidated pro-Union voters, many of whom felt physically threatened. In the days following, many northern-born residents fled Falls Church to the safety of Washington.
Virginia voters removed the Commonwealth from the Union. In Fairfax County, the vote was overwhelmingly for secession. In Falls Church, the vote was closer: 44–26 in favor of secession. On that day and in following days, families split over the secession question. Churches closed as their congregations failed and congregants fled. Columbia Baptist Church—considered primarily a Northern church—was set aflame, presumably by Southern sympathizers.